Girnar Hill : A 10000 steps of fun , fear and adventure !!! :D

It had been quite a time I had not been to a trek and there are rare places in Gujarat where one can go out for a trek. One of such places is Girnar Hill in Junagadh district, it has approximately 10,000 steps to climb. Girnar is a collection of mountains with the highest peak at an altitude of 1100 m. The place attracted my attention and I found it a good place to go for a short trek over the weekend. Encouraged by my previous solo trip, this time too I decided to go alone. I read somewhere that one might climb up the stairs at night too which fascinated me. I inquired about the safety aspects and finalized the logistics which included climbing stairs at night, stay there by sunrise, come back before afternoon and seeing Junagadh thereafter. Accordingly, I booked my tickets and left for Junagadh with an excitement in my heart.

I reached Junagadh at 8:30 in the night, it was a 3 hour journey from Jamnagar (140 Km). After reaching there, I had my dinner, bought a torch and left for Damodar Kund, a place 5 Km. away from railway station where steps of Girnar start. Before going up, I inquired again about the safety aspects and everyone said it was quite safe. I started to climb at 11 in the night. I was the only one who was going up that day, so I was a little frightened but went ahead slowly.  It was a dead silence all around and the cold wind was rushing in through the trees. Moving lonely on those stairs at night was haunting me and various questions started coming up my mind , "Was it a good decision to come?" but at the same time I came across with a thought without risk there is no fun and excitement. That thought motivated me and I started moving up with a decent pace. After 1000 steps, I heaved a sigh of relief when I saw a group of three people (nearly my age) were also going up. They called me by the term "Girnari" and asked me if I intoxicated. I refused and then we all four started moving up.

After we completed approximately 500 steps, they stopped and started to smoke off weed. I too stopped there and again several questions flew through my mind, “Were they good people?”," Was it safe to travel with them?" and many more. I accompanied them for another 500 steps. After that, they started lagging behind and my mind filled with the questions suggested me to move ahead of the group. So I maintained my pace and continued climbing which brought me far away from the group. I was relaxed then and moved ahead with a decent pace. After completing nearly 4000 steps, I found there were number of Jain temples located around, all closed and faintly visible. Next, came the Amba Mataji temple at around 5000 steps. The wind was getting chiller. I moved ahead after taking some rest.

It was 1:15 in the night, my eyes started burning and needed some sleep so I stopped at a nearby shade and packed up myself with the clothes, sat on stone and tried to sleep. But I was not getting any sleep, I decided to move further. As soon as I stepped out of the shade, I saw a greenish black leopard just crossed me. It was hardly 50 cm away from me. I nearly missed my heartbeat and was literally frightened. I silently stepped inside and sat on the stone. Many questions started bombarding in my mind, “Had it not seen me?", "Had it not smell me?”, "Would it come back to attack?”," What would I do?” I was saying to myself “What a reckless fool I was to come alone and left the group." I tried convincing myself that it did not attack human beings but it was not working. I was just praying that the group would come before the animal. They arrived after an hour and I told them the entire scene. It was the toughest one hour of my life that I had ever passed. Every minute seemed to be like an hour at that point. Now again we four started climbing and they warned me if I dared to leave the group. I was frightened and acceded them.

Next at around 7500 steps probably (I had lost the count by that time), Guru Gorakhnath Temple was situated. It was the highest peak among the all peaks. We reported about the animal to a local sage and moved forward. It was a steep descent then followed by a sharp ascent to reach the next peak. The descent was quite easily covered. After a short break where those three smoked off the weed again. We resumed our journey to cover up the last 500 steps leading to the Guru Dattareya Temple. We reached there at 3:30, sat there for half an hour and began to descend.

As it was quite cold and there was no shelter as well, I decided not to stay till sunrise, I came back with them. We had a breakfast at a shop near Amba Mataji Temple. We came across with lot of people who started in the dawn. We were quite fast while descending and it felt like never ending steps. But finally we reached the bottom, it was 7 in the morning, the sun had just risen, I bade farewell to the people and hired an auto to the railway station (I find it the best place to rest if you do not want to hire a room). I got freshened, got some sleep and left to roam in Junagadh City.

I visited the famous monuments, fort and caves around the city. First I went to Mahabat Maqbara, a marvelous masterpiece of Islamic architecture built by sixth and seventh Nawab Mahabat Khanjhi II (details as per legend put up there). But the monument had been abounded and the government hardly paid any attention for its maintenance. It was awful to see that such a monument had been degraded this way. Next to it was Jama Masjid, I view it from outside and clicked some snaps.

Mahabat Maqbara

Jama Masjid

Next, I visited Darbar Hall Museum, it was divided into two sections displaying antiques of the Nawabs and their extravagant life style. In the first section the furniture was arranged in the same style as it was used to be back in time. There was a variety of chandeliers and fancy lights from those times installed. The other section displayed portraits and pictures of the royal family members and various weapons that were used in that time like guns, swords, javelins, shields, bullets. After that I went to Uparkot fort. As I was pretty tired by that time, I did not collect much of the information but one thing was there that attracted my attention. The people used water driven cannons, the turbines attached to it got driven by water coming from nearby water source which somehow created pressure inside the cannon and thereby firing the projectile. Next I went to Buddhist caves, the caves were carved in three tiers downwards from the surface (for more details, please see the snap of the legend below, I am too lazy to describe those :P)

Lake inside the fort

Water Cannon

About the caves

Returning from there, I again went back to railway station and as it was pretty much time left for my train back to Jamnagar. I decided to go Somnath, bought a railway ticket and caught my train to Somnath. I reached there at 6 in the evening. I went to the famous Somnath temple, took darshan of Lord Shiva, watched the light and sound show describing the history of the temple and sat there enjoying the cold winds coming from the sea. I had my dinner thereafter, returned station and caught my train back to the Jamnagar. I was badly tired so did not care to buy a ticket and boarded in the train. As my ticket was reserved from Junagadh, TTE put up a fine for not having a ticket from Somnath to Junagadh. Finally, I returned back to Jamnagar.

Well, it was mixed experience this time. My decision to travel solo was turning out to be a life threatening one, I was happy I came back unhurt. I got a lesson that unprecedented things may happen, so be cautious in taking up decisions but yes without risks there is no fun :). Rest, the trip was a great joy, I re-discovered my lost endurance. I would suggest people going Girnar, go in a group of at least two or if you are going alone start by dawn. This is one of the trip I cannot forget my whole life and do not wish to share it with my parents :P :)